dimension lines (traits de cote)

[jmf]

For me , it is essential to have an easy way to insert dimension lines (traits de cote, in French),
this is very easy in Corel Draw for instance (and I am sure a standard feature in anything dealing with architecture),

typically, you select 2 points, the distance (at the appropriate scale, this point being easy in Affinity) appears,
but then is inserted as a (2 pointed arrow) line in the document (usually , you can choose the distance between
the dimension line and the measured line for readability)

this is really something which would make my decision to buy the full suite

[jmf]

I should maybe mention that this feature should be in "Designer" ...(dimension lines )
tell me if I should try another forum (I know there are workarounds, but this needs to be a quick operation )

jm

 

[jmf]

indeed, the basic tool is there, and it would be perfect to take the implementation of Corel Draw to paste it on the drawing.

[jmf]

I have thus uninstalled the full affinity suite
(had to find out it was there as an "app" in Windows, rather than a standard program ...

this cannot be called "professional"

jmf

[Roger Langham]

I'm an architect and I think Affinity Designer is almost there in it's ability but I can't use it if I cannot quickly tap on a couple of points and leave a permanent dimension there  as I can in say CorelDraw. It's such a shame because there would be many more users if this simple thing was added. The measurement tool almost does it but then the measurement just disappears when you move to another tool. 

[Red Circle]

I did an entire single family residence plan in Designer, reminded me of the old days. Your ruler shows you the measurement, you put it on the plan. Done. It's to scale, so I only needed that rarely anyway. Still so much faster than other tools for me to work with than anything in the CAD space. To each their own. Beats the hell out of vellum.  My hats off to Serif. They built an incredibly flexible piece of software at an unbelievably reasonable price. My endless humble gratitude for their hard work. 🙌  

 

[jmf]

I totally agree with Roger Langham, (although I am not an architect by profession, in technical drawing / architecture community, this is an obvious (and easy ) must  ....I gave up (which means , when and if they improve it, I will need to pay more, since I unsinstalled the full suit)

the corell draw implementation (pick up both ends, hold, shift the mouse to were you want the measurement printed is quick, functional, error-free

doing it by hand is much more tedious and error prone

[Roger Langham]

Although I can't use the Affinity Designer package because I can't easily dimension, I have to say the Serif team have done a fantastic job and produce a professional package at a very modest price. Once we can dimension with it I suspect a lot of architectural colleagues will be using this.

[jmf]

I totally agree,
and woudl have thought it would bave been fixed right away,
I looked at this in the context of the Afiinity Suite, and the photo app seems great (decent simulation of printed result, for instance),
when one gets used to the logic (which is normal)

that's why I commented , in the hope they would  fix it easily

[JanSr]

On 1/12/2023 at 11:15 AM, jmf said:

For me , it is essential to have an easy way to insert dimension lines (traits de cote, in French),
this is very easy in Corel Draw for instance (and I am sure a standard feature in anything dealing with architecture),

typically, you select 2 points, the distance (at the appropriate scale, this point being easy in Affinity) appears,
but then is inserted as a (2 pointed arrow) line in the document (usually , you can choose the distance between
the dimension line and the measured line for readability)

this is really something which would make my decision to buy the full suite

For me too. I did not find how. Does anyone know?

 

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, JanSr said:

For me too. I did not find how. Does anyone know?

The Affinity applications do not currently have dimension line capabilities – measuring yes, but you cannot add the measurements to the document.

Serif are aware that they have been requested but Serif have not implemented them yet.

We will not know if they will be implemented unless/until they are implemented in new beta versions of the software at some point in the future - Serif do not tell us their future plans.

Announcements about features of new betas are in the relevant forum section(s).

[Distortion]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:12 AM, Roger Langham said:

Although I can't use the Affinity Designer package because I can't easily dimension, I have to say the Serif team have done a fantastic job and produce a professional package at a very modest price. Once we can dimension with it I suspect a lot of architectural colleagues will be using this.

I am not an architect but I agree. It would be a substantial step forward for Designer. I am convinced that many people (architects and others) would find the functionality extremely useful.

Personally, I need to add a layer with the distance between some graphic elements. For me, the lack of it, is a deal-breaker.

I am not questioning Serif/Affinity development choices. They obviously know what they are doing but there isn't much on the market that allows permanent measurements in a simple and intuitive way. I use Inkscape and it works but it's a little bit tricky.

[Distortion]

On 4/1/2023 at 2:54 AM, Red Circle said:

I did an entire single family residence plan in Designer, (...)

On a different subject, very cool font in your drawing. What is it?

[Alfred]

24 minutes ago, Distortion said:

On a different subject, very cool font in your drawing. What is it?

@Red Circle appears not to have logged in to these forums since joining and posting once at the beginning of last month, so I asked WhatFontIs.com to help me identify that font. It appears to be a freeware font called Flux Architect, which you can download (together with the other styles in the font family) from here:

https://www.dafont.com/flux.font

[Distortion]

1 minute ago, Alfred said:

(...) It appears to be a freeware font called Flux Architect, which you can download (together with the other styles in the font family) from here:

https://www.dafont.com/flux.font

Fantastic! Thank you! 👍

[jmf]

On 5/16/2023 at 1:54 PM, GarryP said:

The Affinity applications do not currently have dimension line capabilities – measuring yes, but you cannot add the measurements to the document.

Serif are aware that they have been requested but Serif have not implemented them yet.

We will not know if they will be implemented unless/until they are implemented in new beta versions of the software at some point in the future - Serif do not tell us their future plans.

Announcements about features of new betas are in the relevant forum section(s).

I don't remember (I uninstalled the suite, although I found the print simulation interesting in photo) if Affinity suite allows for plug-ins, in which case they could develop one as an interim solution,

everything can be done by hand (including pen and paper, then scan, then trace) , but it is esential to have an easy and quick tool to include (and modify automatically) tens of measurements

[GarryP]

Currently, only Photo has plug-in functionality but that functionality is limited to certain types of plug-ins.

However, Serif are looking at adding scripting functionality to the suite: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/64885-scripting/

[SloMoPhoto]

+1 on the ability to quickly add measurements to drawings that snap to precise nodes, edges, etc.  That would be super.

[jmf]

thks for the responses,  I was hoping that scripting would be an interim way of implementing (I don't volunteer, but most of the info to draw this in postscript is basically there)

In between, I attach a file (very basic application on Corel Draw), where all the measurements have been performed by "parallel dimension tool" in their jargon.
As you see, it is very convenient (this was just utilitary and for my own use, so I did not refine some placements, which I would have done for a contractor )

[dave64]

Just stumbled across this issue. Dimension lines were a feature of Drawplus X through many iterations so it seems to be an odd omission here. I've recently had to reinstall DPX8 in order to modify a drawing, including dimensions which seems a bit of a backward step; especially since Designer is a far superior package is every other aspect.

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, dave64 said:

so it seems to be an odd omission here

At the launch of the Affinity product, Serif stated that the functions will be added gradually, as it is not a mere "renaming" of the legacy Plus applications (they were only for Windows, by the way), but completely "new" applications with a completely different architecture, which, among other things, allows for the support of three OS, a universal file format allowing them to be shared by all applications, and StudioLink-type functionality.

[jmf]

seems it  would not be difficult to implement , and in demand.
I had installed the full suite, and was ready to buy it, but realized that this basic feature was absent
It also made me wonder what other less prominent features would also be left for later ...and prompted me to uninstall...

too bad...

(on the photo app, I liked the print simulation, which is much better than the various Corell apps)

[dave64]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

At the launch of the Affinity product, Serif stated that the functions will be added gradually, as it is not a mere "renaming" of the legacy Plus applications (they were only for Windows, by the way), but completely "new" applications with a completely different architecture, which, among other things, allows for the support of three OS, a universal file format allowing them to be shared by all applications, and StudioLink-type functionality.

I am aware that the Affinity suite was an entirely new set of applications on launchand would applaud Serif's decision to move onto a more up to date development platform to enable cross platform support. I also acknowledge that there is, on occasion, a necessity to hold back a feature which is proving difficult to implement within the new architecture.

In this case however there is also a rather odd anomaly whereby dimensions on a drawing can be obtained and seen on screen but then cannot be permenantly added to the drawing or even embedded in the file.

As others have said this function has been implemented in many other drawing applications, including recent releases - even in free Apps such as Libre Office Draw as well as Corel and Adobe offerings.

I also note that we are no longer dealing with a 'version 1.0'. We, the existing user base, have been sold an upgrade to version 2, nearly nine years since the initial launch of Affinity Designer and numerous updates to v1.xxx and a few to 2.xxx; yet this seemingly popular feature is still to be re-introduced into Serif's flapship drawing application. I would also think that eight years in the modern application development environment goes beyond 'added gradually'.

That being said, I still think that for most applications the Affinity suite is incredible value for money, so easy to use yet its is high quality suite and being able to use my iPad as well as my PC is more useful than I originally though it would be. But can we have dimension mark up pretty please?

Edited June 23, 2023 by dave64

[jmf]

no progress on this?

 

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, jmf said:

no progress on this?

Just follow the Beta forum - you will immediately know if there is anything new in the given topic and if progress is being made.